Patrick J Cohn Ph D Lisa Cohn Popular Books

Patrick J Cohn Ph D Lisa Cohn Biography & Facts

Sister Elizabeth Kenny (20 September 1880 – 30 November 1952) was a self-trained Australian bush nurse who developed an approach to treating polio that was controversial at the time. Her method, promoted internationally while working in Australia, Europe and the United States, differed from the conventional one of placing affected limbs in plaster casts. Instead she applied hot compresses, followed by passive movement of the areas to reduce what she called "spasm". Her principles of muscle rehabilitation became the foundation of physical therapy or physiotherapy in such cases. Her life story was told in a 1946 film, Sister Kenny, where she was portrayed by Rosalind Russell, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Early life Elizabeth Kenny was born in Warialda, New South Wales, on 20 September 1880, to the Australian-born Mary Kenny, née Moore, and Michael Kenny, a farmer from Ireland. Called "Lisa" by her family, Kenny was home schooled by her mother, and only received a few years of formal education when living at Headington Hill, near Nobby. She said in Who's Who in Australia she had attended St Ursulas College near Guyra, but this has never been verified. At the age of 17, she broke her wrist in a fall from a horse. Her father took her to Aeneas McDonnell, a medical doctor in Toowoomba, where she remained during her convalescence. While there, Kenny studied McDonnell's anatomy books and model skeleton. This began a lifelong association with McDonnell, who became her mentor and advisor. Kenny later confirmed that she became interested in how muscles worked while convalescing from her accident. Instead of using a model skeleton, available for medical students only, she made her own. After her time with McDonnell, Kenny was certified by the Secretary of Public Instruction as a teacher of religious instruction and taught Sunday School in Rockfield. Having become a self-taught pianist, she listed herself as a "teacher of music" and did so a few hours a week. In 1907, at the age of 27, Kenny returned to Guyra, New South Wales, first living with her grandmother and then with her cousin Minnie Bell. Whilst living with her cousin she had success as a broker of agricultural sales between Guyra farmers and northern markets in Brisbane. After that she worked in the kitchen in Scotia, a local midwife's cottage hospital and the local Dr. Harris gave her a letter of recommendation. With some savings from her brokerage work she paid a local tailor to make her a nurse's uniform. With that and the observations she had made at Scotia and under Dr. Harris, she returned to Nobby to offer her services as a Medical and Surgical Nurse. During this period of her life she was entitled to describe herself as a Nurse even though there are no verified records of her undertaking any formal nurse training or possessing nursing qualifications. Kenny earned the title Sister while nursing on transport ships that carried soldiers to and from Australia and England during the First World War. In Britain and Commonwealth countries, Sister applies to senior more qualified nurse, one grade below "Matron". Work Kenny returned to Nobby during 1911 after spending time in Walcha assisting her cousin after the birth of her son. Upon her return to Nobby, Kenny advertised her services as a Medical and Surgical Nurse, reaching her patients on foot or by horseback or buggy. Many authors describe Kenny as working as a Bush Nurse, but this is not a term she applied to herself. In July 1912 she opened a Cottage Hospital at Clifton which she named St. Canice's, where she provided convalescent and midwifery services, describing herself as Nurse Kenny, Certificated Medical, Surgical, and Midwifery. Kenny was behaving recklessly in describing herself as a certificated nurse as the Queensland Health Amendment Act (1911) had introduced stringent rules governing the registration of nurses and the registration of private hospitals. In her 1943 autobiography she describes her first encounter with a patient who she treated for the disease that Dr McDonnell thought was infantile paralysis. The story was romanticized in the 1946 film Sister Kenny, featuring Rosalind Russell. In her autobiography Kenny wrote that she sought McDonnell's opinion. He wired back saying "treat them according to the symptoms as they present themselves." Sensing that their muscles were tight, she did what mothers around the world did: applied hot compresses made from woollen blankets to their legs. Kenny wrote that a little girl woke up much relieved and said, "Please, I want them rags that well my legs." Several children recovered with no serious after-effects. Recent scholarship has placed doubts on the veracity of Kenny's reporting of her first encounter with polio whilst working as a Nurse in Nobby or Clifton. Press reports from Australia in the 1930s quote Kenny as saying she developed her method while caring for meningitis patients on troopships during the First World War. Victor Cohn and Wade Alexander observed in their biographies of Kenny that she published several versions of the story during the early 1940s. Alexander claims the most dependable corroboration of Kenny's story is likely to be in a letter written in 1956 to Victor Cohn from the Toowoomba journalist T. Thompson, but Cohn did not give the letter sufficient credence to cite it in his biography. Recent research concludes that Kenny most likely developed her therapeutic techniques while treating paralysis patients during the 1920s. World War I In May 1915 Kenny announced she was closing St Canice to join the War effort in Europe. She travelled at her own expense to London, where she hoped to serve as a nurse in the First World War. She was not eligible to serve with the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) as she was not a qualified nurse. She carried a letter of recommendation from Dr McDonnell, which Victor Cohn believed assisted her in being assigned as a Nurse on the crew of the HMAT Suevic. The Suevic was a "dark ship", so named because unlike hospital ships they were not painted white as protection under the Hague Convention. These transport ships were used to carry war goods and soldiers to the front; returning with wounded soldiers. Kenny's war service records state her date of appointment to the No. 1 Section, Special Transport Service, as the 28 July 1916. Kenny served on these missions throughout the war, making 8 round trips (plus one round the world via the Panama Canal). In 1917 she earned the title "Sister", which in the AANS is the equivalent of a First Lieutenant. Kenny used that title for the rest of her life and was criticised by some for doing so, but she was officially promoted to the rank during her wartime service. She claimed in her autobiography to have served for a few weeks as matron to a military hospital at Enoggera, near Brisbane, but an investigation in 1955 into Kenny's war service by the Officer i.... Discover the Patrick J Cohn Ph D Lisa Cohn popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Patrick J Cohn Ph D Lisa Cohn books.